Changes to SNCF timetables

[Focalplane]

Since I retired I have used TGVs less and less, preferring to drive.  One reason is that I no longer have to attend meetings in Paris and to be honest, with Paris at the hub of French Railways it makes a lot of sense to take the train to Gare de Lyon rather than fly into Orly or Roissy.  Journey times are less overall from almost anywhere in France, Toulouse being the obvious exception.

 

But my other use of French Railways has been to take a TGV to Paris Roissy in order to fly to either Africa (when I worked) or Birmingham.  My latest plans involve the latter and I find that the good old days of cross country travel are history.

 

Time was when there was a direct service between Lille and Perpignan that fitted my travel plans perfectly.  This train no longer exists, the service through Paris Roissy now being between Lille and Marseilles.  The problem is that, for example, the service from Perpignan to Roissy now requires a 1-1/2 hour layover in Lyon Part Dieu.  The trains involve a new RENFE AVE service from Barcelone to Lyon, then a lunchtime wait in the far from attractive Lyon Part Dieu, sharing a bagette with the station pigeons in sub-standard waiting areas, then joining a TGV from Marseilles to Lille.  A 1-1/2 hour stopover makes no sense in these days of high speed travel.

 

The Spanish TGV is not as comfortable as its French reseau counterpart (hard floors that resonate, less comfortable seats and an overhead TV screen that doesn't seem to work most of the time).  So I have asked myself why the downgrading of a perfectly good service to one that now makes travel via central Paris faster?

 

I think the answer lies with the Federal diktats from Brussels.  More and more the EU wants to connect member states rather than internal cities - hence the far from useful interchange in Lyon when it used to be a 5 minute stop with no train change.  Interestingly, the local hue and cry in Languedoc mirrors my feelings.  The two departments that will pay for the LGV from Montpellier to Perpignan, Herault and Aude, currently have two TGV stations, Béziers and Narbonne.  Both are important local hubs.  But the plans, still to be approved after years and years of proposals and debates, call for only one TGV station serving both communities.  The hue and cry is that both departments are expected to foot a good part of the costs of the LGV.

 

All this so that Paris and Barcelone can be connected in about 5 hours (and to make this happen there have to be fewer stops along the way)?